Companies Can 'Hire' a Virtual Person For About $14k a Year in China

From customer service to the entertainment industry, businesses in China are paying big bucks for virtual employees. From a report: Tech company Baidu said the number of virtual people projects it's worked on for clients has doubled since last year, with a wide price range of as little as $2,800 to a whopping $14,300 per year. Virtual people are a combination of animation, sound tech and machine learning that create digitized human beings who can sing and even interact on a livestream. While these digital beings have appeared on the fringes of the U.S. internet, they've been popping up more and more in China's cyberspace. Some buyers of virtual people include financial services companies, local tourism boards and state media, said Li Shiyan, who heads Baidu's virtual people and robotics business. As the tech improves, costs have dropped by about 80% since last year, he said. It costs about 100,000 yuan ($14,300) a year for a three-dimensional virtual person, and 20,000 yuan for a two-dimensional one. Li expects the virtual person industry overall will keep growing by 50% annually through 2025. China is pushing hard into the development of virtual people. Beijing city announced in August a plan to build up the municipal virtual people industry into one valued at more than 50 billion yuan by 2025. The municipal authorities also called for the development of one or two "leading virtual people businesses" with operating revenue of more than 5 billion yuan each. This fall, central government ministries released a detailed plan for incorporating more virtual reality -- especially in broadcasting, manufacturing and other areas. The country's latest five-year plan revealed last year included a call for more digitalization of the economy, including in virtual and augmented reality.

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